12/13/2006 @ 6:00AM

Ten Top Hangover Cures

Walk into El Maguey y La Tuna, a Mexican restaurant on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, on a weekend afternoon, and chances are you’ll find tables full of red-eyed 20- and 30-somethings face-first in bowls of a fiery-hot soup called pancita. Its primary ingredients: tripe (a cow’s stomach lining), dried chili peppers and other spices.

But for El Maguey’s bleary patrons, pancita promises more than a hearty kick. The menu cites the soup as a “hangover cure.” Says manager Maria Cortez, “If you really want to cure a hangover, you’ve got to make it really spicy.” Indeed, 31-year-old patron Erica Mercado swears by it. “It gets your blood going,” she says. After a bowl of pancita, “everything starts to function again.”

Such is the hope of many “over-served” holiday revelers looking for a little relief from sour stomachs, throbbing temples and that damn sunlight.

The best–and most painfully obvious–remedy is not to drink yourself into oblivion. While the amount of alcohol needed to really wreck a person varies by size, gender and genetics, most studies quantify “binge drinking” as consuming more than five drinks in a night–or more than three drinks in one to two hours. According to a 2003 survey by the National Center for Health Statistics, one in five adults had consumed more than five drinks in a day during the previous year.

Some folks are genetically more susceptible to hangovers. Women and people of Asian decent, for instance, generally have lower levels of alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme that breaks down alcohol. And some drinks leave behind more devastation than others: Colorless cocktails like vodka and gin are kinder on the body than dark whiskey or even red wine.

As for morning-after cures, they come in many forms–both medicinal and mythical. Alas, doctors admit that they aren’t entirely sure what a hangover is, let alone how to cure it.

“Imagine how difficult it is to have a clinical trial,” says Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I’d want to play.”

Here’s what doctors do know about hangovers. For starters, booze dehydrates. Alcohol blocks hormones in your kidney that normally would keep you from racing to the bathroom. With each drink, you effectively lose more water than you take in–and that leads to all sorts of problems, like a searing headache. Katz suggests pairing at least one glass of water with every beer or cocktail. (Not only will that keep you hydrated, but you’re more likely to drink less.)

Need faster relief? Pain relievers such as aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen all can stave off hangover headaches. But they can also do a number on your liver when mixed with alcohol–especially those with acetaminophen, such as Tylenol and Excedrin.

Another problem brought on by a late-night bender: When breaking down alcohol, your body pumps out lactic acid and other byproducts that impede the production of glucose (sugar) and electrolytes (salts and other minerals that keep your body functioning properly). Hence that familiar weak, woozy feeling you get when you’re hungover. Sports drinks like Gatorade replenish those reserves.

Too much alcohol also irritates your gastrointestinal tract. (Imagine pouring a class of Absolut on an open wound.) Eating just about anything while you drink eases the pain because the food coats the lining of your intestines. Mexican tradition notwithstanding, blander fare is typically easier to digest, says Katz.

A last resort: Legend has it that a morning nip–the “hair of the dog that bit you”–can keep a hangover at bay. But far be it for us to put you on a slippery slope to dependency. Our suggestion: a plate of greasy eggs and bacon. Cheers!